An hour later, Verdan and the rest of the detachment were in sight of the city and riding hard.

Gerann was a sprawling city with a reasonable sized stone wall protecting it. A few towers were dotted here and there along it, but it was far from a fortified city. The immediate area outside of the walls was dominated by fields and farms, with logging camps set up at the edge of the surrounding woods.

Now, though, Verdan could see smoke trailing up from the interior of the city and the edge of where the walls had been broken and breached at the northern end.

“Verdan!” Gwen shouted, drawing his attention over to a farmhouse they were going to pass by and the dozen Cyth that were boiling out of it as they spotted them.

No doubt all the farmhouses and homes outside the city would be rife with the enemy, but it still hit Verdan hard as he realised that these were freshly turned Cyth.

They’d likely been scavenging or sourcing materials for whichever creature had been left in charge of this part of the Host. As bad as it was, this was actually a good sign. If the Cyth were scavenging out here, it hopefully meant that the interior was still being contested.

“Thanr bel,” Verdan called out, creating a condensed pellet of flames that he sent shooting out to strike the central Cyth in the group. As soon as the pellet struck the creature, it shattered, releasing a ball of flames that charred and burnt the Cyth.

A few of the creatures survived the initial blast, but were quickly cut down as Padraig and a trio of Thearns broke off from the main group as they rode past.

Ciaran’s Thearns were well trained veterans and some of the best warriors the Clans could offer, at least in Verdan’s opinion. They reminded him somewhat of the guardsmen he’d worked with back in the Imperium. They were less regimented, of course, but no less disciplined or skilled.

For a mission like this, he could ask for no better support.

“We’ll head straight for the breach,” Vaijon called back as Padraig and the others caught back up to them. “If there are Cyth present we either deal with them and take it, or draw some off to deal with in isolation. Verdan, Gwen, coordinate for the opening strike once we have eyes on them.”

Verdan caught Vaijon’s gaze and gave him a firm nod before shifting his place in their formation to be next to Kai and Gwen. “Do you want to lead, or should I?”

Gwen laughed and gestured to the sky over the city, which was already starting to darken as clouds began to form. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”

Nodding, Verdan let Gwen take the lead. If she had time to work with the local weather, she would have far more endurance for protracted fights. It was somewhat ironic that a slow and steady approach worked best for a Storm Witch, but the end result was more than worth it.

They passed two more groups of Cyth as they closed with the breach in the wall. The first was in a livestock barn they passed, but the second was a roaming group.

The presence of the roaming Cyth fed into Verdan’s hopes that the city was still resisting.

Verdan roasted both groups of Cyth with fireballs as they swept past, slowing their pace as little as possible. The longer they spent outside and in the open, the more of these groups they might attract.

While that wasn’t necessarily an issue, it wasn’t what they were here to do.

Pushing on, they finally reached the right angle to see the breach itself. Hundreds, if not thousands, of bodies were strewn around the collapsed section of wall, with a veritable mound of them right at the entrance.

Even from here, Verdan could tell that the Cyth had paid heavily to make use of that breach, but it was no doubt a price they’d paid without hesitation.

There wasn’t any activity around the breach at the moment, so Vaijon took them straight in, the hooves of their horses crushing the dead Cyth as they rode through the battlefield.

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The rubble of the breach was too much for their horses to manage, so Vaijon had them come to a stop and dismount, giving Verdan chance to really take it in.

The wall was six or seven feet thick, and twenty or so high. Enough to stop a casual assault but not nearly enough to hold back the determind efforts of a group of Cyth Dregg.

Looking at the area around the breach, Verdan could see giant fist-shaped impacts in the stonework and large ragged sections where the living siege engines of the Cyth had ripped into the wall with their bare hands.

While the average Cyth Lai was roughly human sized but bestial and corrupt in appearance, a Cyth Dregg was often ten to fifteen feet tall with much thicker hide and the raw strength to break through whatever was in their way.

Such advanced Cyth took a lot more to create and only really appeared when a Host was gathered. Something that anyone with experience fighting them was thankful for.

Looking past the breach, Verdan saw the remnants of a fierce fight inside the city. Buildings had been smashed apart and a several huge corpses showed where the Cyth Dregg had been brought down.

Impressively, one of them seemed to have been beheaded, while another had a large hole bored through its chest. That kind of damage to something as steeped in abyssal energy as a Cyth Dregg would have taken strong magic.

Hopefully, this was a sign that both the Defiant Flame Elder and Elder Vanarr had survived the initial chaos of the Cyth making it into the city.

“Macha, can you survey the area?” Vaijon asked as they spread out to secure the house-sized section of collapsed wall.

“On it,” Macha said, reaching up to pull a long crow feather from her messy hair. Macha was a Bloodline Witch, which meant her powers deviated from the predictable norms. In her case, she had the ability to create crow feathers that could then be used to create conjured crows.

The slender Kranjir Witch had a gleam in her eyes as she converted the feather into a sleek black crow with a small flash of Aether, drawing out another feather as it hopped onto her shoulder.

Compared to Gwen’s storm magic, Macha was far from a combat Witch, but the versatility of her crows was incredibly useful. Especially in a dangerous situation like this.

“Verdan?” Hedda called out softly as Macha created a third crow and sent them flying up to circle the area. “Can you sense that?”

“What?” Verdan asked, moving over to Hedda’s side with a questioning look.

Like Macha, Hedda was a Kranjir Witch, but she’d been living in Hobson’s Point when Verdan first arrived. She’d also been the first Hex Witch he’d met since he’d been forced to kill Gloria, the Witch who’d placed the powerful curse on him that started all this.

It had taken Verdan time to get past that, but he was pleased with how natural their teamwork was now. Between the two of them, they could deal with most enemies.

“I can feel the Aether shifting within the city. Not much, but almost like ripples reaching out to us.” Hedda frowned, closing her eyes as she focused on what she was sensing.

Verdan reached out with his Aether senses, but as a Hex Witch, Hedda’s control and sensitivity to the ambient Aether was beyond his own. Like Gwen, she’d flourished once she’d gained her familiar, and was almost as powerful as Gloria had been.

Pushing aside the painful memory, Verdan focused on what he could sense and eventually nodded. “I can feel the faintest echo of it. Well done, Hedda.”

The Witch nodded with a slight smile and reached up to stroke her sparrowhawk familiar. “I could try to use Sgian to narrow down the area?”

“That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Verdan said, drumming his fingers on his staff for a moment before turning to Vaijon. “Hedda can sense fighting within the city. It looks like some Sorcerers are still alive. She can try to lead us there, but we’ve no idea what we’ll find. For all we know, it could be a handful of survivors or a pitched battle.”

“I can see signs of battle from further into the city,” Macha said, her crows cawing above them. “I could try to send me crows in for more, but if they get too close, they’ll be destroyed by any Cyth Baynes.”

“Then we need to move closer, and quickly,” Vaijon said, eyeing the surrounding rubble with a frown. “Dorn, could you clear this up?”

“Yes, Elder,” one of the Disciples of Adamar who’d come with them stepped forward, his robes flowing loosely as he gestured at the large amount of rubble.

Dorn was a short, thin man with a bald head and deep brown eyes. A far from intimidating man on the face of it, but he had a solid presence to him that belied his small stature.

As the Sorcerer’s hand came up, Verdan saw the edge of a cestus made from what looked like stone wrapped around his wrist and knuckles. Intrigued, Verdan watched as the rubble around them shuddered before flowing aside to form two large piles, leaving the way into the city clear.

“We will split up,” Vaijon said as Dorn cleared the path. “Ciaran and his Thearns will stay with myself and the rest of the Disciples to secure this area. In the meantime, the rest of you will head in and see what the situation is. If you get in trouble, fall back to us here and we’ll prepare for a quick exit.”

“I will create some barriers, so only approach from the centre,” Dorn said, pointing to the main path deeper into the city.

“Elder, I should go with them as well,” Ruthin said, tapping the daggers on his belt. “I’m best used offensively and can always relay information back here if needed.”

Vaijon hesitated before nodding. “Agreed. Now, get moving.”